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Neenah Paper is bucking the industry trend of recent years. It plans to build a new manufacturing plant in Appleton to produce specialty filter paper, expanding the company's Appleton Mill that encompasses about 10 acres. The 44,000-square-foot plant will include manufacturing space, offices and a tank farm for methanol and resin storage.

"For us to be vibrant and looking at major investment, not only in the Appleton Mill, but in the Valley, it's just welcome," he said. "This will support the Fox Valley, which is basically a paper industry institution," said Howard Piotrowski, manager of the Neenah Paper's Appleton and Neenah mills.

"We would actually make the base paper within the Appleton Mill and then that paper would be transferred to where this new building would be," Piotrowski said. "We would put some chemical technology into it to create the end product."

The Appleton Mill operates 24 hours a day, five to seven days a week and employs 100 people on three shifts. The new plant would also operate around the clock and could result in an additional 20 jobs.

The company's plans follow years of closings and consolidations in the paper making industry. Post-Crescent Media (http://post.cr/1CZaHYR ) says construction could begin in May or June and be completed within two years if the necessary permits are granted.